The nervous wait to exchange....

Don
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Continuation of our tale of woe:

Exchanged Monday 27th for Completion 29th with our buyers and vendors. Buyers solicitor emails this morning after I'd dropped the toddler off with my parents 20 miles away, cancelled the BB and set it up on the new place for completion day, paid for Royal Mail Redirection, booked a Luton van - that they cannot complete tomorrow by the clients request. That went down like a ton of bricks, as its a housing association buyer we expect it's due money shifting shenanigans, as last week they were trying to negotiate October 8th but at last minute agreed to exchange on the 27th for completion on the 29th.

All contact with the buyers solicitor got stonewalled, wont answer emails, phone calls from our solicitor or estate agent. Our solicitor has already drawn funds today from our new mortgage in preparation also.

Managed to cancel the van hire without charge (I was very lucky with this), managed to get the broadband move cancelled and get reconnected back at our old property (Virgin Media), had to send a cancellation form to Royal Mail - no idea if we'll get the money back for this and pick up the toddler after her 3 day visit got cut short by all this mess.

Expecting a notice of completion will be served by our solicitor on to our buyer, we will get one from our vendor. Expecting the buyer to actually complete on the 8th October - they just seem to be buying time/shuffling funds, which means we are probably liable for interest charges and £700 SDLT. Top class day, not.

Our solicitor has said in her 40 years doing the job, only 2 property sales have failed completion like this, ours is the 3rd, lucky us.

Had you actually exchanged contracts at that point on Monday? If so, the vendor will be liable for any incurred costs and breaching the agreement of the contract if it was written to complete today
 
Soldato
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Had you actually exchanged contracts at that point on Monday? If so, the vendor will be liable for any incurred costs and breaching the agreement of the contract if it was written to complete today

this - if you actually exchanged and the compeltion date is missed its costs +10% to you
 
Associate
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Just renegotiated our purchase price down by £5k after our building survey, we initially offered £5k over to secure it so we are back at the original price ha. We wanted £10k off but they said meet in the middle, as we really want the house we agreed.

Hoping it's a quick process now, lenders have been made aware and sent a revised letter, contract is with our conveyancers and I think we've given them everything they needed. Not sure what else they are waiting for now.

We get our keys tomorrow, very excited.

It seems like it has taken ages but we first viewed the house in July and put an offer in immediately, so compared to some we have been very lucky, it really does pay to spend a little more on solicitors! Also helped that the house has been empty for months and we are first time buyers so nothing to sell.

My mate purchased the flat he has been living in for 10+ years earlier this year and that took 13 months to go through with the cheapest sols he could find.
 
Soldato
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Well October marks a very long awaited calming to the process after a year of chaos :o

Another month of mostly 12 hour days. A few unfortunate people that didn't make the deadline for reasons outside their (and my) control but generally it was a lot better than June..

Now hears hoping there's no Christmas rush as there's no one left to move :p I wish..
 
Soldato
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We get our keys tomorrow, very excited.

It seems like it has taken ages but we first viewed the house in July and put an offer in immediately, so compared to some we have been very lucky, it really does pay to spend a little more on solicitors! Also helped that the house has been empty for months and we are first time buyers so nothing to sell.

My mate purchased the flat he has been living in for 10+ years earlier this year and that took 13 months to go through with the cheapest sols he could find.
The amount spent on solicitors means absolutely nothing. Cost =/= competence in this game.
 
Associate
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The amount spent on solicitors means absolutely nothing. Cost =/= competence in this game.

Possibly not, all I know is the other side went with the cheapest sols in Leeds and it took them over a month to spell my name correctly on the contract. That alone, according to our solicitor, delayed us getting the keys by at least a week. There were quite a few other problems with them too.

They're the same firm my mate went with in my initial comment too, he said they were useless.
 
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Soldato
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Possibly not, all I know is the other side went with the cheapest sols in Leeds and it took them over a month to spell my name correctly on the contract. That alone, according to our solicitor, delayed us getting the keys by at least a week. There were quite a few other problems with them too.

They're the same firm my mate went with in my initial comment too, he said they were useless.
Most just take on too much work, the margins are not great on basic Conveyancing so it is all about quantity. The last month seems to have been utterly bonkers with the stamp duty ‘holiday’ finally ending we haven’t been able to get much if anything out of our solicitors or mortgage providers as we were are not due to complete until the end on October so got shoved in the back burner!
 
Associate
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Had a viewing last week, the viewing was with the vendors themselves rather than an agent which was nice. Good chat, talked us through everything about the house and all the renovations that have been done etc.

Anyway we were upfront and told them we were planning to make an offer, sent it though to the agents and got an acceptance today. So, now we're getting the mortgage/solicitors process started. First time through this all so very exciting while also feeling like a shed load of work!
 
Soldato
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Had a viewing last week, the viewing was with the vendors themselves rather than an agent which was nice. Good chat, talked us through everything about the house and all the renovations that have been done etc.

Anyway we were upfront and told them we were planning to make an offer, sent it though to the agents and got an acceptance today. So, now we're getting the mortgage/solicitors process started. First time through this all so very exciting while also feeling like a shed load of work!

As unpleasant as it sounds. Don't get too excited yet. There's plenty of time to get gazumped, or the survey to come back with issues etc. My wife got attached to the first place we had an offer accepted, only for 2 weeks later to be told they'd accepted a higher offer.

This time, the surveyor highlighted a serious potential issue with the roof space. There should be a structural engineers report completed soon to determine if it's safe, or need money spent to fix it up.
 
Soldato
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As above, we saw a new listing on 13th July, offered and accepted by 21st July, got through all the mortgage application etc, got the offer, then had the report on title from our solicitor and home buyer's survey back, which both highlighted many issues and we ended up pulling out on 17th Sept, so over 2 months later. This was after measuring up rooms, choosing new furniture etc. etc., so was very disappointing. We saw a property on the 20th Sept and offered and were accepted the same day - but this time expectations and excitement are very much tempered.


With the new house, we've already had our mortgage offer and survey back, all fine. Solicitor is doing the searches now, so the process is moving much, much faster. The property was also taken off the market on the day we had the offer accepted so this reduces our worry of being gazumped. However, the vendors are yet to find a new place - they've got viewings lined up and have offered on a couple of properties but yet to give us the good news, so we're moving in with girlfriend's parents this weekend while our property sale is completed.
 
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Associate
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Warrington, UK
Finally had some progress on our sale this past few weeks, enquiries have all been satisfied, the buyers mortgage valuation was done on Monday. Today we got told that the buyers lender has down valued our sale by £10k. Which is exactly the amount over asking price the buyers offered originally. I could take the hit but that would be all my savings wiped out. I've told our agent we are willing to negotiate a little, not as low as the 150k though. Will see what they come back with tomorrow.
 
Soldato
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We can only do viewings on a Saturday unless a vendor is prepared to show us around in the evening. So, we’re missing out on many a property because offers are being accepted before we can do a viewing. Frustrating when work gets in the way of your future.
 
Associate
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Well folks, my tale of woe finally ended. On the day we were supposed to complete (29th September), the buyer decides they now had the cash - we got a call from our solicitor at 11AM, the buyer asked if we can move out that day. Fortunately our solicitor agreed it was an unreasonable request and managed to negotiate 5PM the next day (30th) for moving our belongings but completion on the 29th as per contract. I dropped off my keys on the 29th (to satisfy the new owners had keys) to our estate agent and dropped off the rest of the keys by 4.45PM on the 30th. Managed to meet the SDLT deadline after all that and had stroke of a luck with a 2 day Luton van hire. We are in that's the main thing, not unpacked yet but thankful it's all over. Hoping everyone else has less issues than we had :)
 
Soldato
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Mortgage 1 approved should hear on mortgage 2 this week and gave the structural engineer looking at some ‘interesting’ cracks in Wednesday. All still in track for the end of the month, unless it is falling down!
 
Soldato
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3,912
And this is why you don't get too attached. Sellers have pulled out, deciding that they're going to stay put.

I can't wait to tell my wife...

there is a lot of this happening at the moment. Total lack of stock means that vendors have very little choice and despite looking are fighting over very few properties. People are being forced into bidding wars with multiple parties fighting over each potential property.

My friends recently had a very similar experience and as a chap in the surveying industry, I’m seeing a lot of this
 
Soldato
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This must be a terrible time to buy a house. So glad we got ours last year before all this madness started. I fear that in a few years people are going to really regret overpaying so much for their houses.
 
Caporegime
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This must be a terrible time to buy a house. So glad we got ours last year before all this madness started. I fear that in a few years people are going to really regret overpaying so much for their houses.

Think so too.
My sister is looking to move out of the flat her boyfriend owns into a shared house. So little stock and could be top of the market for some time.

People being 'forced' into buying places they wouldn't normally for more than they want to pay
 
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